Blog - The Purbottar

17 Apr

Graeme Smith Appointed Director Of Cricket By Cricket South Africa For Two Years

editor0 CommentsSports

The Cricket South Africa (CSA) on Friday extended Graeme Smith's contract as its director of cricket for two years. Smith will now remain with the Proteas until the end of March 2022. In December last year, Smith was appointed as the acting director of cricket until the IPL next year. However, on Thursday, BCCI suspended the IPL till further notice due to ''evolving global health concerns''. "Graeme has made a huge impact with his energy, expertise, hard work ethic and characteristic determination and passion he has brought to the position during the six months he has served in an acting…

17 Apr

Ex-England Cricketer Posts Picture Of Disastrous Haircut, Wife Apologises

editor0 CommentsSports

With lockdown in effect in most countries due to the coronavirus pandemic, men have been calling on their wives and other loved ones to get some grooming done. However, this decision has its own dangers and things don't always go to plan. Case in point being former England cricketer Robert Key. The ex-England batsman took to Twitter to post a picture of his disastrous haircut, telling his wife that she is not "allowed to moan about hairdressers ever again". While current and former England cricketers like Sam Billings and Simon Jones had a mighty laugh, Key's wife Fleur did apologise…

17 Apr

TikTok User’s Easy Hack To Slice A Watermelon In Seconds Is Winning The Internet

editor0 CommentsEntertainment

Summers are here, and coupled with the hot summers comes the deliciousness of refreshing summer fruits! Watermelon, papaya, mango, pineapple and musk melon - all are absolutely wonderful to relish during the hot summer months. Their enormous water content helps replenish energy and nutrients in the body. Watermelon, for example, comprises approximately 92% water! The delicious summer fruit can be an any-time snack during the sweltering hot days, which is why it is widely popular especially in India to consume the fruit.Although there are a number of ways to cut, slice and present the watermelon - one particular method caught…

17 Apr

China’s Wuhan Raises COVID-19 Death Toll By 50%, Admits To Missed Cases

editor0 CommentsHealth, Technology

China's coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan on Friday admitted missteps in tallying its death toll, and abruptly raised the count by 50 percent following growing world doubts about Chinese transparency.The United States has led the charge in questioning China's handling of the pandemic and how much information it has really shared with the international community since the virus emerged late last year.Authorities in Wuhan initially tried to cover up the outbreak, punishing doctors who had raised the alarm online in December, and there have been questions about the government's recording of infections as it repeatedly changed its counting criteria at…

17 Apr

IAF’s Brand New Apache Chopper Makes Emergency Landing In Punjab Field

editor0 CommentsLatest

A brand new Apache attack helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) made an emergency landing in a field in Punjab's Hoshiarpur today. The two pilots are safe and the district police are in touch with the IAF's base in Pathankot.Reports said there was no damage to the helicopter."An Apache helicopter of the IAF got airborne from Pathankot airbase. The helicopter, after approximately one hour of flying had indications of a critical failure and carried out a safe landing west of Indora, Punjab," the IAF said in a statement.

17 Apr

Centre Adds More To List Of What Is Allowed in Lockdown

editor0 CommentsNorth East

The government has made new additions to the list of activities that will be allowed amid lockdown in parts of the country that are least affected by coronavirus.Non-banking finance corporations and micro-finance institutions will be marked essential services that can resume. Coconut, spice bamboo, areca nut and cocoa plantations, and forest produce by scheduled tribes have also been added to the list. Construction in rural areas of water supply and sanitation and laying of power lines and telecom optical fibres and cables will also be allowed, according to a notification put out by the home ministry.

17 Apr

HD Kumaraswamy’s Son’s Wedding Draws Scrutiny

editor0 CommentsLifestyle

A VIP wedding took place in Karnataka this morning amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, and photos showed no social distancing, masks or any other precaution in the rituals. Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy married Revathi, the grandniece of a Congress leader and former minister, at a farmhouse about 28 km from state capital Bengaluru.The wedding involving two political families had no one from outside the family, claimed former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy -- the groom's father -- but all traditions were followed. Over 100 were at the farmhouse in Ramanagara, where the bride and groom exchanged…

17 Apr

The RBI cut its reverse repo rate by 25 basis points

editor0 CommentsBusiness

The Reserve Bank of India cut its key deposit rate for the second time in three weeks on Friday to discourage banks for parking idle funds with it and push them toward lending to revive the economy amid the coronavirus lockdown. The RBI cut its reverse repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 3.75 per cent with immediate effect, as said by governor Shaktikanta das through a video conference. The rate had already been cut by 90 bps on March 27.

16 Apr

Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Free Unlimited Data, Calls During COVID-19 Lockdown

editor0 CommentsNorth East

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to ensure that free unlimited calling, data usage and DTH facilities are provided to subscribers to ease "psychological stress" during the lockdown till May 3 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.It has also sought a direction to the Health Ministry to take appropriate steps to deal with psychological pressure mounting on individuals due to the lockdown or being kept in quarantine.The plea sought directions to the government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to invoke relevant terms of agreement of licenses granted to DTH…

16 Apr

India Fast-Tracks COVID-19 Fighting Drug Supplies To UAE

editor0 CommentsNorth East

India is fast-tracking procedures to supply hydroxychloroquine, a drug considered to be efficient in fighting the coronavirus, to the UAE after a request from the country's government, media reports here quoted the Indian envoy as saying.India's Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor said there is a huge demand for the anti-malarial drug from many countries and India is considering it on a case to case basis."As the drug is on the restricted list, we are obviously giving exception to the UAE, given the friendly relations between the two countries," Khaleej Times quoted Kapoor as saying.